Google is strange, it is exciting, and it is revolutionary. But above all, it is unpredictable. Over the years, the company has made many aggressive moves, and buying other successful companies has always been one of its biggest and most frequent moves. Till this point, Google has acquired over 150 companies since its first acquisition in February, 2001, transforming the existing company Deja into fresh Google Groups. However, there are 4 acquisitions that stand out, because each cost Google in the range of billions:

Youtube
It was October 9, 2006, when the first sign of Youtube becoming a global phenomenon appeared. That was the day when Google acquired Youtube for a massive $1.6 billion. The video sharing site has never looked back since then. With a billion users visiting the website each month, and over 100 hours of video uploaded per minute, Youtube boasts of its presence is 61 different counties!

DoubleClick
By the time it was 2007, Google already figured out that online marketing was something it had to seriously take under control. With that view, April 13 brought the news that the giant online advertising platform DoubleClick was now Google’s. Paying over $3.1 billion, Google never regretted the decision as it transformed the company into AdSense, the biggest online ad network that operates in the world today!Motorola
In the month of August, 2011, when Google acquired Motorola Mobility for a whopping $12.5 billion, the move seemed kind of strange! But then, Google definitely was not acting childish. The acquisition not only led way for the emergence of Android, but also carved the path for Google TV. Well, the company later sold Motorola Mobility to Lenovo for a price of about $2.9 billion, but that’s another story!

Nest Labs
When Google made its second largest acquisition of $3.2 billion known, many were surprised. The giant bought Nest Labs, the maker of smart thermostats and smoke alarms for homes, for that amount of money! Nowadays, most experts feel that Google did not just by the company for making its presence known in the thermostat industry. It is predicted that Google has other sneaky big plans to make exciting new products with the help of Nest!

Other notable acquisitions by Google include Feedburner, Waze, Skybox etc. In the recent times, Google has been noted to acquire a number of different robotics companies, and the world still has to find out where that leads!

As XP makes its exit, what’s next for users of the operating system? That is a question that many information technology professionals are asking themselves. The operating system (OS) was originally launched in 2001 and was arguably Windows’ most successful.

By the time of its Service Pack 2 release, around 2004, it had evolved into a relatively stable platform. But on April 8, 2014, support for this OS from Microsoft come to an end. This may be devastating news to many small businesses who use applications that are no longer supported but do not transition to another OS.

Option #1 Upgrade to Windows 7 or Windows 8.1

As we enter a post-XP world, companies face big IT questions when it comes to what to use for a new OS. What are your options? The next version of Windows is an obvious choice. And there are several choices with this. Windows 7 will be provide the smoothest transition and require the least amount of hardware upgrades. Windows 8, however, is fairly different.

(Here is a quick Intro to Windows 8.1)

According to many experts, employees at larger companies who have upgraded to Windows 8 have struggled adapting to this OS, which is designed to work with touch screens. It also will most likely require companies to upgrade to new hardware.

Option #2 Switch to Apple OSX

If you are done with Microsoft and want to make a complete transformation — in with the new, out with the old, as they say — one option is to migrate to Apple’s OS X. Since, with windows, you most likely have to upgrade both hardware and software, a drastic change is not as crazy as it sounds.

(Highlights of the latest features in OSX Yosemite)

Mac’s OS X is very user-friendly and Apple provides great customer service, especially for small businesses. You can run Windows — even Windows XP — on your Mac, as well.

Option #3 Give Google Chrome a Go

Other options recommended by several online experts are Google’s browser OS. A Chrome-book is a low-cost laptop that runs Google’s Chrome browser. It costs approximately $450. You will have to switch to Google’s document management system such as Google Docs and Google Sheets, which are similar to Microsoft Word and Excel.

They are all managed online with Google Drive. Each of these programs is easy to use, and you can export spreadsheets and documents to Microsoft files for added flexibility. There is even presentation software that allows you to build PowerPoint-style presentations. Another advantage is that everything on Google Drive is available anywhere you can log in to Google.

(So what is Chrome OS..)

Whether you are switching operating systems completely, or upgrading to the latest Windows software, there’s no doubt that the user experience is going to be a big change for you and your employees. Make sure to think about training programs for your company to smoothly make the transition. We recommend iFeeltech IT Services for OS Migration and On-Demand IT Support, visit their website at http://ifeeltech.net to learn more about their IT Solutions. If you have any question please feel free to contact us.

An ERP system consists of several modules bundled together as one software distribution. Some of the key modules include, Accounting tools, payroll managers, human resource managers, decision support systems, file storage managers and many more. Each of these modules performs highly specialized tasks, which can be customized to your business needs.

The monopoly enjoyed by Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems in a business environment is undoubtedly unchallengeable. To this date, no alternative system has offered a better way of managing the entire catalog of operations, with such swiftness. In fact, many developers prefer to improve current ERP systems, as opposed to coming up with rival systems.

In the past decade, the quality of module functionality was a key distinction factor between ERP systems. However as time passed by, developers subconsciously conformed to some undefined standard. Today, the only major differences between ERP systems, is attributed user interfaces, and deployment mode.

ERP systems can be deployed in two ways, namely cloud ERP and Premise ERP. Let us briefly highlight on each of these trendy deployment modes.

1. Cloud ERP Deployment

AS the name suggest, the enterprise solution is installed somewhere on a remote server cloud server. The modules of then are then accessed through dedicated web portals. In this deployment mode, your business uses the ERP software as a SaaS (Software as a service). This means that you do not own the system, and failure to renew your subscription will result to termination of service. However, on the brighter side, you avoid the cost of installing high end servers on your business premises. You also do not need to worry less about software maintenance, and regular backups.

2. Premise ERP deployment

This is the latest in Enterprise IT deployment trends. In this case, the software will be installed in a local server machine in your preferred business premise. This is done in a similar fashion to what is popularly known as traditional deployment. However there are numerous differences, for instance traditional ERP systems were desktop applications, whereas premise ERP systems are web apps. This means that if your server is configured correctly, a premise ERP system, couples up as a cloud ERP.

Premise ERP systems have numerous advantages over all other forms of deployment. First, your business has complete owner ship of the system; hence you hold all rights to customize it as much as needed. Secondly, it is cheaper in the long run to have your own cloud servers, since most of the required software (ERP system, security systems, operating systems etc) you initially paid for dearly, are available free of charge or at significantly cheaper costs.

Here is a list of some enterprise open source software you might consider for your server; RHEL (Red Hat enterprise Linux), CENTOS (community enterprise operating system) and Open ERP. You of course need expert support in setting the up.

These days a lot of innovations are already springing up with, better solutions to several ancient computers related problems.

Here are six of the top innovative solutions we have discovered that can create a huge impact in your business operations.

Genetic Sequencing

The use of powerful supercomputers in cancer research is not a new thing, but lately, the new innovation is the use of scientific calculations which is a major landmark.

According to a system analyst, Mr. Charles King: this is a very important project because it shows that cloud computing technology has come of age and also helps researchers understand the genomic sequencing that takes place in brain cancer patients.

IBM Watson has released a cloud based version of its systems that can scan databases and also learn how to customize treatments to a patient DNA.

Microsoft Office 365 for iPad

The Microsoft Office 365 app that has been designed for iPad might not look like an exciting globally acknowledged innovation, but it remains a game changer for smart business owners.

With its official launch on Apple iPad, it means business owners can now stay securely connected to the cloud.

Business owners can also get the app for free by paying the monthly web usage or storage fees and picking up the standardized version of the office 365.

This application also supports swiping and other popular gestures since it has also been designed to be used on tablet devices.

Basic6

With the use of a console, you can easily manage the numerous tasks like password settings, account management and many others often carried out on cloud servers and their data centers.

The Basic6 has been designed as a new innovation that allows your dashboard to work in real time for services such as the AWS and Box at the same time.

Most of its features are often managed using a tree structure within the left pane while the main console also maintains an audit trail of the exact changes made to certain cloud services.

Box View

Trying to write a program for cloud systems is usually a very dull routine, but one of the latest innovations is helping to change all that.

With Box, developing or writing code, for the cloud computing systems are no longer dull tasks as its Box view is more important in helping non programmers upload business documents to the cloud and can also help them create rich HTML driven sites using an embedded document viewer.

SmartVue

Coming up with surveillance videos in a corporate environment is a different ball game compared to home surveillance as there are several policies in the workplace one must consider.

These include policies on signal encryption, storing the recorded videos, managing the cameras and much more. However, Smartvue cloud surveillance servers are a great innovation that allows you manage and view any camera with the help of a web browser.

All security cameras installed within your work premises can be connected to these cloud servers for policy management, security controls and storage. And there are several third-party cameras that would work quite fine.

Amazon WorkSpaces

One of the greatest IT challenges facing businesses who offer virtual desktops to their employees is the issue of always making sure they are available and set up for speedy performances.

Recently, Amazon introduced a latest innovation – the Amazon WorkSpaces – a cloud based desktop app that can run on tablets or laptops.

The major innovation with this app is the optimization of a network using Amazon Web Services which can also provide a similar availability expected from cloud storage service applications or any regular software.

More than 1,000 major enterprise networks and small and medium businesses in the U.S. have been compromised by a recently discovered malware package called "Backoff" and are probably unaware of it, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said in a cybersecurity alert on Friday.

Some of the world's largest businesses say their Cobol application infrastructure, running on state-of-the-art big iron, still delivers a powerful competitive advantage. The challenge going forward will be staffing.

Its fast and robust data processing and storage power make Hadoop both wildly popular and wildly complex. Here's how four IT leaders have managed to bring Hadoop systems from the sandbox into production.

NetSuite has avoided what could have been an ugly, image-damaging court battle, having reached an agreement to dismiss a lawsuit brought by its customer SkinMedix over an allegedly unusable software system.